Tales of the Jedi: The New Order
by Devin Bach
Summary: Using SW characters of my own creation and following the novels, I have written the life and times of a series of new characters...
1. Rebirth - The End of the Xerixes Odyssey...

Okay. Background information first. Beth Leigh is a character of the female Jedi Mara Jade look-a-like persuasion, but a rebel pilot of Luke Skywalker's age. Eventually she rose to the rank of General in the New Republic Armed Forces. She was created by my close friend and writing colleague, Gaia Ravyn Myles. With her permission, she became a focus in my stories about Corin Xerixes. This is the end of the story in which Gaia and I both agreed to let Beth's character die. She was right; it was time. I whole-heartedly admit I was wrong to try and keep her alive but it made for a really good story. As soon as I finish typing it, I'll add it to the archives. Enjoy yourselves, readers. And feel free to tell me just how much of a hopeless romantic I am. Like I don't already know… - Ian Caseno  
  
  
  
"Beth..." Corin gazed up at her shimmering figure, washed out in shades of ethereal blue and green that rose from the shattered shards of crystal.  
  
"Hello, Corin." She paused. "...I have to thank you again I suppose...for freeing me." His voice caught in his throat.  
  
"...I tried..." She listened, as if knowing what he would say. "I tried so desperately to save you back then." He looked up, his typically cold and unflappable composure shattered, tears welling as he fought down the anguish tearing him apart inside. "And now that I've saved you at last, I have to lose you again."  
  
"I made my choice a long time ago, Corin. Nothing could change that." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Not him. Not you."  
  
"You didn't understand then! The Vong are tearing the galaxy apart! They killed your husband! They killed you!!!!" He caught himself, trying to calm the raging inferno of anger and grief inside him. "...But you could've lived. You chose, selfishly, to follow him, when you KNOW you could've made it."  
  
"I know." She seemed to fade slightly, as if the pain of the memory taxed her more than she wished to let him see. "But what I now realize Corin...is that it was that selfish choice that drove you finally break down your walls you had so carefully erected for yourself." She smiled sadly. "And what a tragedy it would be, if you selfishly joined me now, with all that you've learned and come so very far..." I only wish that you would live, Corin, and not fight the fire I see now inside you...don't let it burn your soul to ash. Live..." He blinked up at her, comprehending but not wanting to.  
  
"There's something I never got to tell you...I know it's selfish of me to want to follow you, like you did your husband...but before I let you go again, I have to tell you." He trailed off, gathering himself.  
  
"Corin...it's alright.... I know...." Her smile saddened further, and at the edges of Corin's perceptions, he could feel the planet shuddering under him as the Vong planet-shaping creature chewed into the core. "Selfishness is a strange thing isn't it..." she said, almost casually. "It can make us do and say things we'd normally not do...become people we would not have otherwise become..." He looked up at her, all masks and pretense stripped away.  
  
"Beth..." The silence around them seemed deafening, as thought the galaxy itself was holding it's breathe for this one moment in time. "I'll miss you...more than you'll ever know...I..." She responded with a smile, the smile he'd seen only a few times before. It projected hope and life, tempered by a fiery will to survive and the discipline of a Jedi...and it was the smile of the greatest real friend and ally he had ever had.  
  
"Oh but I do know.... and I'll miss you too, Corin...my friend." She began to fade into the swirling ether of the Force, as a breeze kicked up about them.  
  
"Beth..." Tears as hot as the fires now raging out from the core of the planet streamed down his cheeks. "I love you..." His whisper was carried away with the wind, swept up with her spirit as it merged at last with Force. He sagged to the ground, and the last vestiges of the dark side that had once claimed him as it's own fell away with his consciousness.  
  
He did not remember returning to his ship. He did not remember taking off from the doomed planet, escaping by flying through a hail of exploding rock and fire at the remnants core. All he remembered of the vision he'd had of Beth was the smile she'd left with him, and their parting words...their final parting words.  
  
  
  
5 months later...  
  
Ord Mantell, Spaceport tapcaf "The Dusty Spacer"  
  
"Well?"  
  
His friend stared at him in a mix of wonder, checked by extreme cynicism. She sat back in her chair.  
  
"You're crazy. You know this."  
  
"I have been called that from time to time."  
  
She watched him closely, looking for a flicker of emotion on his face, ANY emotion.  
  
"You want me to hook you up with a set of NEW YT-2000 parts, revamp your ship, reset the registry, rearm it, rewire the entire thing inside and out so that it can carry more passengers, weapons, and speed, and have it ready to go to Coruscant in a week." He nodded, tossing a credit chit onto the table in front of them.  
  
"Less, if you can manage it. Money is no object." Kiria stared at him hard, searchingly.  
  
"Something's.... different about you." Corin smiled. Openly. Warmly. She nearly fell over with shock.  
  
"Don't...ever.... scare me...like that...again," she breathed, with mock severity, a smile of her own playing across her vixen features.  
  
"I'm just getting warmed up."  
  
And then he told her about his homeworld, his youth, his service to the Empire, Beth, everything. The truth. Even though he'd known Kiria for years, almost two decades, he'd never told her, or anyone else for that matter, his whole story. For the first time, Corin felt free. He had chosen his new path, unselfishly. And he was finally in control of his own destiny.  
  
~Fin~  
  
This story is continued in Tales of the Jedi: The New Order. 


	2. The Fall of Coruscant

Okay, first a little back ground information. I've been writing Corin stories on and off since about 1996. Corin Xerixes is a character entirely of my own creation, based in the StarWars universe. Oddly, I had never read about the X-Wing series or "I, Jedi" by the most esteemed Michael Stackpole, and thus did not know anything about there being a jedi named Corran Horn until about 1999. Just note that the two characters name similarities are completely unintentional.  
  
Anyway. Corin is a favorite character of mine that I've written maybe 200-300 pages (written, not typed) about over the years, and typed I don't know how much more. If I can get it all typed, MAYBE I can post it. If not, you'll have to make do with this. THIS is a fanfic I have branched off to from the mainstream New Jedi Order series. The scene that I will begin this arc with takes place at the end of the recent hardcover book, "Star By Star", by author Troy Denning. For those of you who've read my stories about Corin, I hope his new incarnation lives up to your expectations. And for those of you reading about him for the first time... My apologies for not typing his stories sooner for you to heckle. And now, enjoy. - Ian Caseno  
  
* * * * *  
  
A woman holding her infant son stood in abject horror for what seemed an eternity, staring up into the dying sky. Death rained in plasma bursts and fire, massive skyhooks slowly descending down from low orbit and the upper atmosphere into the very corridors of Coruscant's artificial landscape. Around her, chaos reigned. Thousands, millions of people just in that single city section of the capital world of the New Republic scrambling over each other, each desperately trying to locate their loved ones and find the fastest ship off of the soon to be ruined planet. Finally tearing her eyes away from the spectacle in the skies above, she turned, only to collide with a burly man rushing past, the impact knocking her to the ground. She clutched her son to her, struggling to avoid being trampled in the chaos and confusion. She cried out for help, but it was as if she was merely a part of the dying landscape, and no on paid her any heed. Suddenly an overwhelming calm filled her, and the chaos around her ceased, becoming more orderly as if by magic. A figure clad in black, dark and foreboding, strode through the crowd, which parted subtly for him. He leaned down, a hand outstretched to help her to her feet. She climbed to her feet, almost solemnly, a strange mixture of fear and amazement visible in her face. The people rushing past them as he guided her toward the starport entrance seemed to take no notice, but wherever they passed, the level of tension in the air seemed to dissipate. He guided her toward an alcove leading toward a ship awaiting the last two or three passengers it could squeeze in. As he turned to leave her, she caught his arm.  
  
"You…thank you."  
  
He answered with a barest nod, and walked away through the crowd, headed toward the remains of the Imperial palace. The woman turned to the guard standing by the access port. "Who was that?"  
  
"Madam, I don't know. He's been bringing us people for the past hour, trying to calm things down to help everyone get away." He glanced at her, a forlorn expression on his face. "Coruscant is dying, and he knows it, but he's still trying to save as many people as he can. I should've left on the first ship, but because he stays and keeps bringing people… I've stayed, too." The guard took her arm gently, escorting her up the ramp and into the lower hold of the ship. "This way madam. I can try to find you some comfortable seating before this ship tries to escape."  
  
Corin watched quietly in the same spot the woman he had just saved had stood transfixed, as if waiting for the end. The sky was filled with dying stars, and each star, a ship or bolt of energy large enough to engulf a ship. Drawing on the latent Force energy permeating the area, he send waves of calm and urgency into the crowd around him, using a tactic taught to him by Emperor Palpatine himself. The Emperor had probably never foreseen such a peaceful use of it, but any good that Corin could do would aid maybe these few who tried to make it off planet. A void in his perceptions behind him caused him to start briefly. The person who did not exist in the force, a man of no great stature, moved to stand next to him.  
  
"It's almost lovely, isn't it?" Corin remarked to no one in particular. The man next to him grunted. Corin turned to face him. "Bombing a crowd is the work of a coward, even if the crowd is infidel," he said, even quieter, in the language of the Vong. The man started, and looked at him hard.  
  
"Jeedai."  
  
"Right first time."  
  
Corin's lightsaber ignited with a snap-hiss, deflecting a strike from a short amphistaff as the ooglith masquer disengaged from around the man's head, revealing the scarred and tattooed forehead of a Yuuzhan Vong warrior. Sickeningly, it fell back like a living hood as the warrior advanced, the crowd around them taking no notice. Such was the mastery of Corin Xerixes that to avoid alarming them and destroying the calm he was trying to craft into their hurried escape, that he shielded their perceptions from his duel with the Vong insurgent. Moments later, he quietly tipped the body of the Vong agent over the balcony, replacing his lightsaber at his belt. Several hawk-bats dove after the body. Corin was glad to have been of service to nature at least in a small way, and continued his focus of calm out into the crowd. It was not until another figure, a young woman similarly dressed, but in light silver rather than black, came and stood beside him that he looked away from the unnatural shower of light and destruction above.  
  
"The ship is secured, Master. I have loaded as much of our group into the ship as possible, but even then we did not have enough room for them and all of our cargo."  
  
She glanced up at the ships, some of the analogs now visible as they began strafing the city sections that stretched almost to the atmospheric terminator.  
  
"Cargo can be replaced. Lives cannot." He looked at her, studying her demeanor rather than sensing her through the Force. "You are troubled."  
  
"That would seem to be an understatement, Master." There was no hint of worry or even sarcasm in her voice. The lack of inflection in her dry wit was telling of just how bleak she feared the situation had become. Would become. He turned his gaze upward again, observing a single coral skipper drifting toward them.  
  
"And what would you do, were the imminent fate of this planet not troubling you?" She seemed to consider it a moment, her eyes following the same analog fighter.  
  
"Very likely have a nice long shower. In hot water, rather than vibe it off. And after that, hot chocolate with cream and extra caff." Corin shook his head, smiling slightly. She looked at him. "You seem more troubled by this than I do, Master. I…know that this was your home for many years. I'm sorry." She looked down, but her gaze still flickered after the analog craft, now joined by several others and what appeared to be a transport analog. Corin did not bother to meet her eyes as he responded.  
  
"Gaea, I was never truly at home here. It saddens me that this world will pass, especially in such a violent manner, but life will continue." A muscle in his cheek twitched as he forced a smile. "I almost wish the Emperor had lived to see this." He turned away from the balcony. "We're leaving. If you've any goodbyes to say, I suggest you hurry." She looked up into the skies above, the light from Coruscant's sun dimming. She realized, as no doubt Corin did, that this was the twilight of the galactic order, as they knew it. With the fall of the prime world in the Republic, there was truly no turning back. With a barely whispered goodbye to the past that was rapidly burning down in gouts of plasma and fire, she turned and followed Corin back to the ship, which waited to carry them and the other Jedi they had managed to locate away from Coruscant before the former Imperial capital was reduced to ashes and dust. 


	3. Escape Velocity

On board the ship, the race to make it to orbit and avoid Vong pursuit was a heated one, in more ways than one. The Yuuzhan Vong had perfected their starfighter analog in its capability to out flank and destroy ships several times their own size, but against a pilot as skilled as Corin, and aided by his apprentice, Gaea, the massed plasma fire of their three pursuers amounted to little more than would a few decently piloted TIE Interceptors. And Interceptors had been outdated for two decades.  
  
"We may have just lost the aft deflectors," called Gaea from the topside gunnery turret on Corin's personal YT-2000 Corellian freighter. The dimming of the lights briefly told her that the deflectors had just been reinforced. Corin did not bother issuing orders as he flew. She knew what he would want her to do, and when to do it. The moment she had informed him, he had reinforced the rear deflectors and punched up the power feed to the quad-cannon turrets. The ventral gunnery seat was manned by a friend of Corin's, a mercenary with Force sensitivity and amazing piloting skills, by the name of Rend Starpyr. Rend was about as warm as Hoth on a cold solar day, but he was good at what he did. And what he'd been trained to do was kill. He'd been one of Admiral Daala's handpicked assassins, bent on fulfilling her last order to him, which had been to eliminate Corin and his pupils, if any. Now, ten years later, he was an operative in the Jedi underground, helping get Jedi being hunted by the traitorous Peace Brigade to safe havens where they could effectively disappear. Until recently, Coruscant had been rife with such safe houses. No longer. Rend had a vengeful hatred of the Vong that Corin feared could only lead to the dark side, but at this point, it was probably moot. Besides, Corin couldn't exactly warn Rend away from the dark side...he himself had spent much of his early years an unwitting but very willing thrall to it.  
  
"Coming up on the atmospheric terminator. Entering high orbit." As usual, Rend had little to add aside from the readouts he occasionally volunteered.  
  
"Three skips inbound and closing fast on our tail." Gaea again, her voice emotionless.  
  
Corin was focused his senses on the Force and everything around them. He kept track of the ships around them, blasts of plasma crisscrossing space, debris and fluctuations in energy. But mostly, he was focusing on what wasn't there: the gaps in his perceptions amidst the blanketing synergy of the Force. By watching for these, he had an added sense of where the Vong were, for what good it did him. It also showed him where the gravitic focuses that blocked his escape vector were originating. Keying the comm switch at his arm, he explained his plan to Gaea and Rend.  
  
"I'm going to need you both to reset your firing configuration to stutter-fire. These are the two dovin basals in our way." As he spoke, specific portions of the Lancer frigate analog ahead of them were bracketed. "I'm going to launch a pair of torps at each, the first will be duds. Keep suppressive fire overtaxing their voids, and try to do as much damage as possible. As soon as we get a clear vector, we're out of here."  
  
"Understood." This was Gaea. Rend responded with a comm click so as not to divide his attention from hitting the Vong. Rend had been using the stutter fire configuration before the Vong invasion had made it fashionable, and very few gunnery officers in the New Republic or the remnants of the Empire could match the damage he could do with it, even on normal fire settings. Rend opened up on the newly targeted dovin basil, burning a meter wide hole in it before it could even move it's void shield around to swallow the energy. Gaea managed to do roughly a third of Rend's damage before the void could cover its creator. And then, something changed, as the first two proton torpedoes launched at their prospective targets. Gaea and Rend switched targets. Corin smiled grimly, watching Gaea's basal fail and burn out before the torpedo targeting it could even connect. One down...  
  
"Corin, we've got more company." Corin glanced down at his screen, noticing a fourth coral skipper he hadn't picked up before. Sithspit. This could get ugly, he thought to himself.  
  
"I heard that," muttered Gaea over the internal comm.  
  
"Less chatter, more fragging." Corin shook his head. Other than Beth, no one had been able to pick up on his emotions this well. Of course, he reflected as he deftly twisted the Knight Shadow out of the path of a pair of plasma blasts from their pursuit, no one frustrated his emotions this much, either. He felt a twinge of self-consciousness from Gaea as she tagged one of the fighter analogs chasing them.  
  
"Gaea." He keyed the comm, a half smile frozen on his face as he tried to keep track of the most recent skip to join the chase.  
  
"Yes, Master?"  
  
"Try focusing more on what isn't there than what is."  
  
"Um...yes, Master."  
  
He clicked off and hoped that she would take the hint. Whatever chemistry there was between them, he wasn't going to let her carelessness get her and his passengers killed. The click was punctuated by the explosive death of the Vong matalok-class cruiser. He keyed the comm again as he punched up the power directed to the engines.  
  
"Rend?"  
  
"What?" replied the gunner, irreverent as ever.  
  
"Want to stick around and find a few more mataloks? Maybe a worldship or two to sate your cannons?"  
  
"Might as well. You've certainly got a lead on me in kills." He paused to finish off another coral skipper. Corin suddenly realized that none of the original skips chasing them were among the cloud now chasing them, but it was tripled in size. One of them had gotten close enough to strip the shields with its dovin basals but it looked like they didn't have any serious damage.  
  
"On the other hand, our passengers are probably getting a little nervous." Corin smiled, laughing inwardly.  
  
"Discretion is the better part of valor. And being alive to get them back later is definitely a plus," Gaea remarked.  
  
"What about my kill count?" Rend demanded with mock severity as they reached optimal jump distance from Coruscant gravity-well. The only answer was relieved and tense laughter as they made the jump to hyperspace, on a heading taking them for what was once a haven to no Jedi: the heart of the Imperial Remnant. Bastion. 


	4. Hyperspace

Well well. Very little in the way of reviews, but I didn't expect much. After all, this fic is for me more than anyone else, and I tend to work slowly when I'm being selfish. Maybe if I speed it up a bit, I'll see a few more reviews? -wince- Argh, sunburn. Comes with summer, I guess. Alright, time to get to business:  
  
As you can see, the first few chapters aren't much to go on, but it's a start. I neglected to mention that there is about a 3-4 year gap between chapter one and chapter two. The first chapter is early in the Vong invasion, the second and third are current; that is to say, up to date with the StarWars books as of Star By Star and Rebel Dream. My applause goes out to Aaron Allston on that last one. I can't wait to see what else he has cooked up for us in Rebel Stand, which ought to be out in June. Enough ranting. Story time, boys and girls. (By the way, is anyone else angry about Boba Fett being a clone?) - I.C.  
  
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Hyperspace. He'd always loved hyperspace, the exhilirating rush of making the jump to lightspeed, the ever-shifting patterns of light and energy as he passed through. And the quiet. The all-consuming quiet that gave him a moment's peace from feeling the full rush of the Force's proddings. A low, insistant chirruping interrupted his train of thought. Skifter, his astromech droid, wheeled into the cockpit, whistling a short message.  
  
"No, we won't be making any stops on the way to Bastion. It should be a straight jump there." The little droid whistled another question, ending in a rather indignant blatting. Corin rolled his eyes indulgently. "Skifter, will you try and relax? I don't like quoting odds, but I'm fairly certain we'll be able to make Bastion without any serious complications. At least not one that I haven't planned for," he added quickly before the droid could rasberry a response. Skifter tootled his equivalent of a shrug and an "I hope you're right," then rolled out of the cockpit to talk to the Shadow's computer. Gaea nearly tripped over him, but managed to keep her balance as he rolled past. Without even bothering to stop, Skifter beeped a hasty apology and headed for the computer terminal. Gaea slipped through the cockpit door just before it shut, dropping lightly into the co-pilot's chair. Corin glanced away from the viewport, smiled at her arrival. "What's wrong? The hold too cramped for you?" She tossed off her usual smile, eyes alight with mischief and intelligence. It was incongrous with the innocence she projected to everyone else, but around him she came even more alive than she usually seemed.  
  
"You know it's too cramped, or you wouldn't have asked. I had to get back to this," she explained, gesturing to the viewport, the open expanses of hyperspace playing out in a stunning light show as they passed through it. He nodded, understanding perfectly. Though she had been born of the same race and homeworld as he, she had grown up on a lush and green world, the second best thing to paradise as far as he was concerned. She was used to wide open spaces, rolling hills of green and forests that stretched for hundreds of kilometers, lakes and oceans covering thousands more. Space travel had been an unusual adjustment for her, but as long as she could see space, she seemed comfortable.  
  
They sat in silence for a while, the lights dimmed and the door closed, enjoying the view of hyperspace. He felt a minor tremor, the silence becoming slightly awkward for his apprentice. He turned his gaze to her, observing her slowly. She avoided his gaze, looking down at her hands, folded in her lap, or up at the streaks of light shining through the transparisteel window. He waited. If she had something to say, she would say it. Otherwise, she tended to keep her thoughts to herself.  
  
She looked up, noticing him watching her, then her cheeks reddened slightly. "May I ask something, master?" He shrugged, gesturing open- handed for her to speak. She nodded slightly and continued. "What...what did you mean exactly? Over Coruscant." His eyebrows rose slightly.  
  
"I had thought you understood; focus on the Force anomalies to find the Vong, less on the emotions and thoughts of your passengers and crew." She frowned slightly, not diverted or amused in the slightest.  
  
"You know that's not what I meant," she said quietly, sounding almost hurt. He sighed.  
  
"Consider my exact words. I sa-" he began but she cut him off.  
  
"I have. You told me to focus on what wasn't there rather than what is. Considering the exact context of the situation, I assumed you meant to focus on the Vong's non-presence, rather than your personal thoughts." Her eyes sparkled with the look of someone who knows a secret that they want to play with. "And they were more personal than you want to admit, weren't they." Corin found himself reddening slightly, to his great surprise and chagrin.  
  
"Gaea...I really don't think-" he said as he was cut off yet again.  
  
"No, you don't do you." He blinked. She was never this way when around others, especially other Jedi, thankfully. Discipline between master and apprentice was something he had worked hard with Luke and Kam to cultivate. "If you did think," she continued, "you'd have done something about how you feel by now."  
  
"Gaea, it's different for us." She blinked at him, surprised. No denial, which she'd learned was the same as an admission, but it showed she was wrong, that he had thought about it. Calming techniques weren't masking her expression of surprise. She hadn't dared let her self really believe that he thought of her at all... "We," she realized he meant Jedi, "certainly are allowed to love. We're allowed to marry. For me, " he trailed off. "For me, it's hard to let anyone in. My past with the dark side has made it difficult for me to feel anything for anyone. And the only two people that I did love," he said, looking in her direction, but not really seeing her, "died. I couldn't save them."  
  
"They were perfectly capable of saving themselves, Corin. It's not your fault." She looked as sympathetic and as serious as he'd ever seen her.  
  
"The first was." He looked very old, suddenly. Immeasurably so.  
  
"But she forgave you. You told me that." He looked at her, his gaze focusing on the present again.  
  
"That doesn't mean I can forgive myself for what I was then. And for letting it happen." He turned back to the viewport, watching the shifting patterns of light.  
  
Gaea sat in the co-pilot's seat, waiting for him to say something, unsure of what, if anything, she could say to break his fog of self doubt. After a time, she stood, and left the cockpit. Wandering the Shadow's close confines, she finally picked her way through the crowded ship to the gunwell she'd been sitting in earlier to think about their conversation. She'd never seen him like that before, brooding and nursing his old wounds. From what little she knew about his past, he'd always seemed to try to do the right thing, even when he was under the influence of the Emperor and the Emperor's darker servants. And he'd redeemed himself from the dark side, completing that process at almost the same time he'd met her. Meaning, she realized slowly, it was his own inner demons he still competed with that stopped him. He was afraid. But of what? 


End file.
